Chhattisgarh High Court: The order of trial court acquitting the accused of rape charges was upheld in an appeal by the State before a Division Bench comprising of Prashant Kumar Mishra and Ram Prasanna Sharma, JJ.
The accused was charged under Sections 376, 450 and 506 (B) of IPC. It was alleged that he committed forceful sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix after threatening her. The accused denied the allegations. The matter went to trial and after appreciating the evidence, the trial court acquitted the accused. The State filed the instant appeal against the said order.
The High Court perused the evidence available on record and found that the prosecutrix was a married women aged about 22 years. From her statement, it was clear that she did not resist during the alleged intercourse and also did not cry for help even when many other family members were present in the house at the time of alleged incident. Further, the medical evidence produced by the prosecution did not support the prosecutrix. The Court also found that there was a political rivalry between the uncle of the accused and father-in-law of the prosecutrix.
Considering all the circumstances, the High Court was of the view that the trial court has appreciated all the evidence in proper perspective and reached an opinion that it may be a case of consensual sex. The Court held that since the findings of the trial court were based on relevant facts, it would not be proper for it to disturb such findings. Accordingly, the order of acquittal passed by the trial court was affirmed and the appeal filed by the State was dismissed. [State of Chhattisgarh V. Panchu Sahu, 2018 SCC OnLine Chh 288, decided on 20-3-2008]
